


The Legend of Harry Warden: Those Who Remain

by parjil



Category: My Bloody Valentine (1981)
Genre: Dedicated to Redsugarslashers (starsinthesnow), F/M, How Do I Tag, I Don't Even Know, POV Outsider, Rated as M for Mature due to the nature of the movie, docu-series style story, how the f do i tag this???, it's like one of those true crime docs on investigation discovery, some 48 hours stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:21:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22645552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parjil/pseuds/parjil
Summary: As the community of Valentine Bluffs turned against Harry Warden, only one person was unswayed by the atrocities committed. His fiance.
Relationships: Harry Warden/Reader
Kudos: 16





	The Legend of Harry Warden: Those Who Remain

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to Redsugarslashers aka starsinthesnow. Harry Warden was her boi. 
> 
> Here's to you, Becca!

Valentine Bluffs, Nova Scotia. A small, rural mining community. The kind of town where everyone knew everyone. Or so they had thought.

Our story begins on Sunday, February 14th, 1960. Valentine’s Day. Valentine Bluffs was founded in 1784 and became incorporated in 1889. From its founding in the late 1700s, Valentine Bluffs was known for the coal mines. The largest was owned and operated by the Hanniger Mining Company, founded by John D. Hanniger in 1876. 

The biggest event of the year for this small mining community was the annual Valentine's Day dance that had been a tradition for over a hundred years. Everyone in the community was there. Except for seven miners. Five men were down below in the tunnels, starting to head up from their shift in Tunnel Five. All were excited and eager to attend the dance or go home to their sweethearts.

The two supervisors on duty, Leonard Palmer and Joseph Myers left before the five men were safely above ground, anxious that they were missing the largest event of the year. The two supervisors failed to check the methane levels before they left. While they attended the dance, there was a methane gas explosion that resulted in the five miners becoming buried alive as the northern part of Tunnel Five collapsed on top of them.

_[A map of the mine tunnels is shown, highlighting Tunnel Five and a red circle marking the approximate location of the explosion]_

For six weeks, rescue teams worked around the clock to save the trapped miners. The accident gained national coverage in Canada and all eyes were turned to this mining town and the mine. The trapped miners' families were a common sight.

_[News articles from Monday, February 15th, 1960 to March 27th, 1960 are shown]_

On Tuesday, March 29th, 1960 at 1:46 pm, the rescue teams finally broke through. Only one man was found alive. This man was Harry Warden.

_[A newspaper clipping from March 31st, 1960 shows the headline " **MIRACLE IN NOVA SCOTIA MINING ACCIDENT; ONE MAN FOUND ALIVE"** ]_

Harry Warden was born on January 12th, 1929. Harry was fourteen years old when his father was killed in action during the Allied invasion of Italy in 1943. Harry’s mother died in 1955. He began working at Hanniger Mine at the age of 18 in 1947. At the time of the 1960 accident, he had over 13 years of experience in the mine.

Over the six weeks that the miners had been trapped, Harry had gone insane. Immediately after his rescue, it became evident that he was delusional and violent and had to be transported from the local medical hospital to a mental hospital. In the week following Harry Warden's rescue, the bodies of the four other miners were recovered and the atrocities that had occured below ground came to the light of the surface with the bodies.

Details of the gruesome scene weren't revealed until weeks later, and some were never made public at all.

[an excerpt from a 1983 interview from retired Police Chief Jacob Newby reads:  
_"The scene was not pretty. It was the most gruesome thing that any of us had ever seen."]_

In a coroner's report, two of the men had been killed in the blast. A full autopsy was performed and human remains were found in two of the men's stomachs. The coroner's reports further detailed the other two victims were killed by blunt force trauma to the skull, likely from a pickaxe. One of the men, identified as Alan Bates, was killed a week before the rescue team broke through. Alan Bates was violently killed. 

[an excerpt from one of the few living rescue team members in 1983;  
_"They had to have heard us digging. They had to. How could Harry Warden have killed a man when they were a week away from salvation?"]_

The reaction of the people living in Valentine Bluffs was one of shock and horror. They had all known the men who had died and the only survivor. They began to question just who Harry Warden was and what kind of man could have done something like this. 

[another excerpt from Leonard Palmer reads;  
_"We all knew Harry. He was a decent guy! We went out to the bar after our shifts, had a few beers and played pool with him. Harry had been the best man at my brother's wedding. How could he have done something like this? Just what kind of monster was he."]_

As the community of Valentine Bluffs turned against Harry Warden, only one person was unswayed by the atrocities committed. His fiance. 

**Coming up:** The exclusive interview with Harry Warden’s fiance. For the first time, she speaks out about the man, the details of mining accident, the murders of 1961, the copycat murders in 1981, and how the community made her a pariah.

**Author's Note:**

> Mostly set during the 1981 movie timeline, with bits of the 2009 remake mashed into it.


End file.
